51³Ô¹ÏÍø

Piya Gosalvitr (University of Manchester)

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is increasingly used to support the development of bio-based and emerging materials that are expected to contribute to net-zero and circular economy ambitions. However, assessing these systems presents a range of methodological challenges, including biogenic carbon accounting, co-product allocation, circularity, and avoided impacts. In addition, different methodological approaches, reporting frameworks, and system boundaries can lead to different environmental conclusions for the same system, creating challenges for both practitioners and decision-makers.

This keynote draws on the work of the UK LCA Network (previously known as LCARSIN) Bio-based and Upcoming Materials Working Group, which explored these challenges through case studies on sustainable aviation fuels, circular materials, construction products, and novel biomaterials. The findings demonstrate how methodological choices, reporting requirements, and system boundaries can influence LCA results and their interpretation. The case studies highlight that the key challenge is often not the generation of LCA results itself, but rather the interpretation of differences arising from alternative methodological choices and their implications for decision-making.

The challenges identified across the case studies suggest that future LCA practitioners need skills that extend beyond technical competency, including the ability to compare alternative approaches, critically evaluate the strengths and limitations of standards and frameworks, understand how methodological choices influence results, and recognise when important aspects such as end-of-life impacts, carbon storage duration, or future circularity pathways may not be fully captured. Addressing these challenges also requires life cycle thinking and a holistic understanding of the system to ensure that results are interpreted within their broader environmental and decision-making context. Using examples from the working group, this keynote will discuss how these challenges can inform the development of future life cycle education and help prepare practitioners and decision-makers to interpret and use LCA results more effectively.

Sharizal Ahmad Sobri (Nottingham Trent University)

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is increasingly expected of engineers, managers, and policy-facing professionals, but teaching it effectively remains challenging. Learners often struggle to connect LCA theory with real operational decisions, interpret uncertainty and system boundaries, and translate results into actions that organisations can actually implement.

This keynote shares a practice-informed approach to developing LCA literacy and employable sustainability skills by combining (1) clear conceptual scaffolding, (2) authentic industry-context problems, and (3) tool-supported learning activities that encourage systems thinking and evidence-based decision-making. Drawing on teaching experience across the UK and Malaysia, the talk highlights how LCA education can be strengthened through: use of case-based assessment (e.g., transport and manufacturing contexts), structured engagement with EPDs and real datasets, and integration of simulation and modelling (e.g., climate-action simulators) to help students understand trade-offs, rebound effects, and the consequences of policy and operational choices.

The session concludes with a simple, transferable framework for designing LCA teaching that balances rigour with accessibility, i.e. covering recommended learning outcomes, assessment formats, and practical strategies for supporting diverse cohorts within time-limited modules.